The Changing Face Of Leakage Management

Leakage Management has evolved to being just one of many operations in holistic network management, but as a specific discipline, the technologies available to reduce leakage are continually developing and improving, while the methods deployed for overall 'smart' management of the network become ever more sophisticated.

Meanwhile, water scarcity is becoming a worldwide problem, not just limited to typically 'dry' climates; which means that leakage still remains in the spotlight at bothlocal, national and international levels. Water companies, technology and service providers and customers must all work together to drive down leakage and reduce demand, as a significant element of the overall drive to manage our limited water resources.

Optimising the Latest Technologies - Going Beyond 'Smart'

For international water utilities, smart networks are here to stay, but do we have the data analytics to handle, understand and use all the data to maximise efficient leakage management? Now the focus must move on to learning about strategies to maximise data capture from all sensors in the network, and making sure that data isanalysed and used intelligently to further drive down leakage.

The 2016 Leakage Summit Delivers Essential Technical and Practical Information to the Global Water Industry.

Key Issues To Be Discussed At This Years Summit Are:

- Are Water Companies Complacent About Leakage? They have driven leakage down to target levels, but the levels have been 'flat-lining' for several years.  Are companies doing enough to reduce leakage further?
 
- Background Losses.    Will new studies on the ratio of background (company) losses to plumbing (customer) losses justify the need for more AMI - Advanced Metering Infrastructure?
 
- Handling 'Big' Data.   There is a wealth of sensor data available from multiple sites across the network.  But are companies coordinating, analysing and using these data to identify and fix leaks more quickly?

 - Customer Expectations.  Customers don't like to see visible leaks - and they expect the company to fix leaks in minutes not days - can companies make better use of the wealth of data available to reduce repair times?
 
- Resilience of Supply.   What does resilience mean?  Does it extend beyond having sufficient capacity for managing recovery to properly understanding and managing risk?
 
- Are Water Companies Innovative Enough?  Not just in technology but in services and approaches, such as customer research and engagement?  Are they investing enough in making networks 'smart'

 - What Can Regulators Do? To lead innovation, accelerate technology, encourage investment and bring together stakeholders?
 
- Maximising Income for the Company. By addressing commercial losses (under-registration of customer usage due to ageing, inaccurate and non-working meters
 
- Knowledge Management.   Better Information Management (BIM4Water) is rapidly moving to the forefront of the water industry.  The concept of BIM - an information model mapping the asset data and with supporting data for asset interoperability - has been around for some time, but is still not widely understood
 
- Challenges to Security of Supply.   Meeting demand from external influences: extremes of climate, scarce water regions, local cultural, social and political influences, and increased demand from population migration